Business View Civil and Municipal | May/June 2022

87 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 5 economic development corporation also offers a scholarship to students who are looking to attend trade school and return to Ennis. Being proactive, they are supplying industry with the needed quality workforce and are drawing new companies all the time. “The traditional pathway of university or academic education doesn’t fit everyone,” Wehmeier admits, “and quite honestly it doesn’t fit the economy in general. If everybody went and got a four-year degree, our economy would collapse because we need these technical trades in every city, not just here. However, in Ennis we’ve got a strong workforce and with the rapid growth in our housing market, it will continue to grow and obviously our hope is that it outpaces the need.” In 2013, an EF1 tornado ripped through Ennis’s historic downtown causing severe damage to many of its buildings. The damage was so widespread the city was faced with a tough decision – clear out and build new or preserve the history and majesty of the downtown core that was so central for community gatherings and events. The city chose to save it and partnered with MESA Design Group to bring the downtown back to life with improvements that safeguard the historical aspects – thanks to a $150 million investment. McCarty says that working with MESA doesn’t feel like work at all, noting, “They’re like family, they have completely invested in our downtown and at every turn, at every development, they are boots on the ground. David Newman, who is kind of the big brother of our project, is downtown all the time making sure that it always looks its best. He’s working with developers on their facades and they (MESA) are really a great partner.” The city council did extensive strategic planning to facilitate the transformation and have followed all of their steps and timelines to ensure the downtown’s legacy lives on. MESA was incorporated into that plan. The downtown’s ENNI S , TEXAS